A Day In The Life

I recently read a day-in-the-life post by Susan Wise Bauer, who is the woman who wrote the book that we base our own-school approach on (The Well-Trained Mind), and I thought it might be fun to do. I think it will be interesting to look back at how our approach changes over time. Will we be doing the same things with Lorelei at 5 and 6 that we did with Audrey? If we deviate will it be because of the experience we have acquired with Audrey as our guinea pig, or because of our quickly changing life circumstance?

Here it is, a typical Monday with our family. Jacob normally gets up a little earlier and gets started. I will jump in on the day's events when I get my lazy butt up at 7:30a.

Cue Jacob:

Well, I normally do, it's true, but wouldn't you know that the day selected for our day-in-the-life post is a day I was sick and missed our usual stuff. Well anyway, here's what we would normally do:

Alarm at 6:00. Stumbling around in the dark.

6:15a Coffee and clothes on. Tea brewing for the girls.

6:20a I sneak in to grab Audrey out of the top bunk.

6:30a Audrey and I spend 30 minutes on math. We're working on Singapore 1A.

7:15a We a read a section of history from The Story of The World Vol. 1, answer review questions, Audrey dictates 3 sentences to me of what we read, which I write down and she copies.

7:45 While Audrey copies, I go and grab Lo for 15 minutes of schoolwork of her choice: either reading her a story, or working on a Kumon exercise book.

And I'm out for work. Cue April:

7:30a I wake up early enough to have a few minutes to myself before everyone else needs me. I take a shower, brush my teeth and make myself a coffee

7:55a Audrey (age 6) and Lorelei (age) 3 are hungry! I relieve Jacob just a couple of minutes before he has to get to work (right now he telecommutes on Mondays so he just heads to his desk, currently set up in the garage). Today I made oatmeal, with cranberries and walnuts, cinnamon and vanilla.

8:05a We sit at the table and pull out our composition book, Writing with Ease: The Complete Writer. I decide to start with day 2 because it is a story passage, which both girls enjoy while I have both of their attention. I read the passage from The Reluctant Dragon and ask the review questions. Audrey gets them, but has to be reminded several times to tell her answer as a complete sentence. Then Audrey writes down one thing she finds interesting about it.

8:20a Audrey liked "The Reluctant Dragon" so much that she asked to do the other passage in Week 17 too. After we read it, and do the review questions she writes another sentence about the passage.

8:40a We just happen to be having an amazing morning. Lorelei is completely interested in school and Audrey isn't getting distracted. I decide to press my luck and get out our current science book, the DK First Animal Encyclopedia. I read them the pages on penguins and we discuss the pictures. I ask Lorelei for one thing she thought was interesting from the book, and she immediately loses interests and takes off. I ask Audrey the same question and she writes down her answer on her writing paper.

9:10a I realize that we have to leave for swimming lessons in 20 minutes and nobody is dressed. I run to find outfits, bathing suits and towels for the girls. I throw the bathing suits on the couch and ask them to put them on, while I go and get dressed.

9:20a I come back to the living room to find Lorelei completely tangled in her bathing suit. I take it off her and start over. Audrey has forgotten that she was supposed to put clothes on over the bathing suit and started finger knitting instead. "Audrey, please put clothes on"…"but Mom, I just want to finish this." "We will be late for lessons if you finish that now, maybe you can work on it during quiet time." Very huffily, "fine!" She resumes getting dressed.

9:30a Finally everyone is dressed with coats, socks and shoes on, we are standing on the top of the stairs, when I realize I forgot to pack a snack or water bottles. I run back to the kitchen, find the easiest bottles to assemble and throw a sleeve of graham crackers in my bag.

9:35a In the car, and only 5 minutes late.

2p After swim lessons for both girls, lunch out (we had sushi, our favorite!) and a short park date with friends, we are back home. I set up Audrey at the dining room table with her spelling review lesson and ask her to get started while I put Lorelei down for a nap. At this point it is hit or miss on whether she will actually rest, but we have quite time nonetheless.

2:15p I join Audrey at the table as she is finishing up the lesson. We look over the whole thing together and make proof reading marks for her to fix her mistakes.

2:35p Audrey and I set up a tray for quiet time together. I ask if she would rather work on her handwriting workbook or composition days 1 and 3, which are copy work from "The Reluctant Dragon." She chooses the copy work. We add the rest of her thank you cards from her birthday to finish. She painted water colors, dictated what she wanted to write to me, then copied it back onto the back of the paintings. We also added her science paper so that she could add a drawing to accompany it and I gave her the choice of bringing markers, crayons or colored pencils. She chose markers. We carry the tray to my bed, where she likes to work, and I turn on the audio book of "The Reluctant Dragon" for her to listen to while she works.

3:30p Audrey is done with the tray and the audio book. She picked out two books to read for free reading time. She complains a little and would rather get straight to embroidering or playing on the iPad.

4p I bring her her embroidery supplies and turn on some music for her, while I go back to researching how to finance a boat and if we can really do an estate sale.

4:30p I realize that Audrey and I have to leave for our Girls' Leadership class in 15 minutes. I bring her a change of clothes (she always strips down the second we get home and puts on her pajamas…like mother, like daughter). We each grab an apple and run for the car.